Evanston Considers Adding Additional Taxes To Fund Cash-Strapped Reparations Program

The first government-funded reparations program in the country plans to make more payouts this year after running out of money last year.The six-year-old program at Evanston, Illinois plans to hand out $25,000 payments to 44 people. The disbursements will be made monthly as funds become available, with the city’s reparation’s committee anticipating all of the distributions will come by July.There are two groups eligible for payments. The first are classified as ancestors — defined as black residents of the city between 1919 and 1969. The second group is made up of direct descendants of ancestors.137 applicants in the ancestors category have received payouts totaling $3.47 million, according to local news site Evanston Roundtable.The latest payments are going to people in the descendants category. When this year’s payments are made, 171 out of 454 people on that list will have received payouts that will top $4 million.Councilwoman Krissie Harris says people need to be patient. “It’s really important for people to understand, we pay as we have the money, it’s not that we’re withholding from paying everyone,” Ms. Harris said at this month’s committee meeting.The funds come from revenue from the city’s real estate transfer tax and a retail cannabis tax. The reparations program also accepts donations, but that only raised $1,000 last year.The 3 percent sales tax on recreational marijuana sales in the city of 75,000 has not raised as much as anticipated so the reparations committee is suggesting a new sales tax on other unregulated cannabis products. That would include delta-8 extracts found in THC products sold in gas stations and convenience stores, such as gummies, brownies, and vapes.Committee members, however, say that delta-8 products are generally quite inexpensive, so any tax revenue generated from purchase of those products would likely be relatively small. “If a tax is imposed on Delta 8, there is a question as to whether it would be worth the inevitable court challenge to the tax,” the city staff said in a recommendation to the committee.The city council would have to approve any new tax to delta-8 products.The reparations program is being sued because only black residents were allowed to apply. The conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch filed the suit on behalf of six residents claiming the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because of the city’s use of race as an eligibility requirement to seek payments.

Evanston Considers Adding Additional Taxes To Fund Cash-Strapped Reparations Program

Evanston Considers Adding Additional Taxes To Fund Cash-Strapped Reparations Program

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